Your lunchtime links to accountability news:

• Since Congress authorized in 2006 that a national database of child abusers be created, the effort has barely progressed because of serious flaws in many state child-abuse registries, according to The Associated Press. In many states, people can be placed onto registries based on assertions by a child protection investigator, without charges or a conviction.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that in September, Port Authority police were told to stop and search Najibullah Zazi, who has since pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, but instead they allowed him to continue into New York without finding the explosives hidden in his car.
• The Army's Warrior Transition Units, far from being havens for physically wounded and psychologically traumatized soldiers to recover, are often "warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers," according to The New York Times.
• The New York Times investigates the luxurious, hidden life of New York's Mayor Bloomberg at his $10 million waterfront home in Bermuda, where he spends much of his time when away from New York.
• Federal prosecutors are sending more Mexican drug lords to U.S. prisons, rattling the cartels somewhat but failing to quell the growing violence, reports the Los Angeles Times. In a related story today, The Washington Post reports that in Mexico, the arrests of allegedly corrupt mayors have led nowhere, as incompetent prosecutors drop cases or judges dismiss them for lack of evidence.

These stories are part of our ongoing roundup of investigations from other news outlets. For more, visit our Investigations Elsewhere page.

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